In Berlin and Erfurt, two murals belong to the people - People's World
Sunday, January 26, 2020Renau mosaic in Erfurt, Stadtverwaltung, Dirk Urban
No-one on Berlin’s main eastbound traffic artery could miss one of the two murals, five stories high, 2745 square feet in area, in shiny bright, red, green, yellow and blue colors up to the gabled rooftop of an older, isolated apartment building. A first glance sees an Indian village in Nicaragua with red-roofed huts, dogs, a spotted hog, chickens amidst beautiful tropical trees, flowers and birds in a jolly rural setting.
But take a closer look and you see the fighter plane and the armed soldiers marauding through the village, masked villagers trying to protect it, panicked mothers and children – and the corpses.
Monimbó was the first village to rise up in 1978 in defense against repression by the right-wing Somoza dynasty. It held out for a week against the well-armed foreign-born mercenaries, largely recruited in U.S. military magazines. Though finally defeated and destroyed, it became a symbol of th...https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/in-berlin-and-erfurt-two-murals-belong-to-the-people/
Germany's Bundesgartenschau: Come for the flowers, stay for the art, architecture, leisure - Stars and Stripes
Tuesday, August 20, 2019Restaurants, snack stands, cafes and a wine bar cater to one’s culinary needs, but you can also pack a picnic to enjoy among the flowers.
Should you miss it, the next BUGA is in Erfurt in 2021. Two years later, it is in Mannheim on the grounds of the U.S. Army’s former Spinelli Barracks.
abrams.mike@stripes.com Twitter: @stripes_photog
DIRECTIONS: Heilbronn is off Autobahn A6 on the Neckar River, about 40 miles north of Stuttgart, about 90 miles east of Kaiserslautern and about 100 miles south-east of Wiesbaden.Follow the BUGA logo to parking. The Heilbronn main train station is across from the grounds, about a six-minute walk to the gate.
TIMES: Daily, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Oct. 6.
COSTS: Admission is free for people under 15; 8 euros for people 16 to 25; 23 euros if you are 26 to 66; and 21 euros for seniors 67 and above. Parking is 5 euros.
FOOD: There are restaurants scattered throughout the grounds.
INFORMATION: Online: buga2019.de. Under Hauptmenu, scroll down to Service and then BUGA — Life in Bloom for information in English. Dogs are not allowed on the BUGA grounds.
A sculpture by Jaume Plensa, made of painted steel, sits among the flowers at the Budesgartenschau in Heilbronn, Germany. There are many works of art sprinkled throughout the grounds of the federal garden show.MICHAEL ABRAMS/STARS AND STRIPES
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Discovering Thuringia, Home to Germany’s Enchanting Christmas Markets - Vogue
Tuesday, August 20, 2019Below, explore Thuringia’s must-visit markets and other notable sights:In Erfurt, traditional Christmas markets prevailAdvertisementErfurt is Thuringia’s capital city, as well as its largest city overall, with a population of over 200,000. It’s also home to Thuringia’s largest Christmas market, the Erfurter Weihnachtsmarkt, along with several other mini markets spread out across the city. (There are over 200 different booths overall.) In the main market, find the best of traditional German food—and drink!—as well as a wide selection of handmade décor.Strolling the booths, I’m instantly drawn to the glass-blown Christmas ornaments, one of Thuringia’s specialties, that come in all shapes and sizes, from classic red and green baubles to the kitschier weihnachtsgurke, a shiny green pickle-shaped ornament that is all the rage here (tradition goes that whoever finds it on the tree first on Christmas Eve gets to open their presents first). Woodwork is also a specialty of the region. There are wood-carved figurines, from Santa Claus to nutcrackers, that are sold with tiny incense burners hidden in the bottom. German Christmas pyramids are also made of the material; they're decorated with figurines from a nativity scene, and a spinning rotor at the top is fueled by the rising heat of burning candles, which are placed along the bottom. (Every house here owns one—it’s a mainstay piece.)In between spending all of my euros, I taste the fantastic bratwurst sausages and large, salty pretzels. I try the hot candied nuts, which are sold by the pound—there are almonds, cashews, and walnuts. Heart-shaped gingerbread cookies are a crowd-pleaser: here, they come iced with kitschy slogans, such as “vielen, vielen dank” (thanks a lot). I’m told I must also try the Stollen, a special fruit bread made with nuts, spices, and candied fruits. To sip—and de-thaw from the cold, there's a large variety of glühwein, a concoction made of warmed red or white wine infused with oranges, cinnamon, cloves, and sugar.Despite the treasures to be found here, what makes Erfurt’s main market is especially dazzling due to its surroundings. There is a larg...https://www.vogue.com/article/touring-germanys-christmas-markets
On the Thuringia tourist trail - Inverness Courier
Tuesday, August 20, 2019With these credentials it is a great place to explore, and here are some of the delightful towns to see.The magnificent town hall of Erfurt, with replacement statues for the originals stolen at the end of the war.Erfurt This is the capital. It is around 1260 years old so has loads of old buildings, including a medieval bridge, 125 metres long with 35 houses built on it, the longest in Europe that still has people living on it as well as shops.Nearby is the Late Synagogue Museum, recalling the times of the Nazi era. There are two huge churches on a ridge dominating the market square. St Mary’s cathedral and St Severus church are angled slightly away from one another, leaving a massive triangular staircase to connect with the square below. The magnificent town hall of Erfurt, with replacement statues for the originals stolen at the end of the war.To the right is the squat large fortress, built to dominate the whole town. The Augustinian Monastery is also spectacular. More modern is the Ega Park, which has the largest flower bed with ornamental flowers in the whole of Europe. There are Bauhaus design buildings here, but to find out more about this go on to...Weimar This is the centre of culture, democracy, literature, and also where the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp is. After World War I, the great desir...https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/lifestyle/culture-castles-and-kilometres-of-trails-in-german-state-181187/
Germany's second-highest traffic bridge opens - DW (English)
Sunday, January 26, 2020German Taxpayers Federation keeps tabs on areas where they believe taxpayer money was wasted and sums up the most egregious cases in its annual "black book." The 2019 report called out Thuringia's Environment Ministry for a flower-shaped mini-solar panel sculpture that was installed in the shade. The ministry defended the flower, saying it was never supposed to power the building.
Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 A bridge for mice After realizing that a new bypass road near the southern German city of Passau cuts through the natural habitat of the dormouse, officials got creative and built a bridge for the mice to safely travel over the road. The German Taxpayer's Federation (BdSt) had a bone to pick with the resulting structure ...
Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 Perilous path to safety (instructions not included) ... The bridge requires mice to climb wooden rungs up 7 meters high (23 feet) and run down a passage 20 meters long in order to travel safely over the road. The project ended up costing taxpayers €93,000; the BdSt said it wasn't clear if any dormice actually use the bridge. The city of Passau said colonies of mice were found near the road. Explaining the bridge's purpose to them may prove tricky.
Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 Stolen but golden This golden bird's nest was the prized possession of an elementary school in Berlin — until it was stolen. The sculpture, comprised of 74 branches made out of pure gold, was placed in a display case with supposedly shatter-proof glass. According to the BdSt, the artwork cost €92,500. Thieves tried to break in several times and managed to make off with the nest on their third attempt.
Germany's biggest wast...https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-second-highest-traffic-bridge-opens/a-51355455
The perfect destination foHere is why Germany is the perfect destination for your next holidayr your holiday! Discover nature in Germany - Emirates Woman
Sunday, January 26, 2020Alps are characterised by green trees and extensive forests.Rhön UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: at the corner of the three German states, Bavaria, Hesse and ThuringiaThe Rhôn hills are located in the heart of Germany and offer a wide range of beautiful views! And if you are a fan of athletic activities, you can try gliding, water sports, and indulge in a spot of star gazing.Jasmund National Park Mecklenburg-Western Pomeraniait takes you right along the cliffs and features enough natural treasures for several holidays. White chalk cliffs, lush beech forests and the shimmering blue of the sea. You’ll catch sight of a rare white-tailed eagle circling in the skies, while far below a thousand different species of beetle scuttle through the undergrowth in this landscape of contrasts.Black Forest National Park, Baden-Württemberg, South GermanyPerfect for cleansing your lungs. The remarkable feature of this national park is that some areas have been able to develop for more than 100 years without human intervention. This means that all the animals and plants that are found here live in authentic, natural surroundings.You can use Deutsche Bahn trains all over Germany, where it uses 100% green energy. In addition, you can take the InterCity Express for a unique experience, as it is a high-speed train that connects all major cities in Germany with speeds of up to 300 km / hour, and this is one of the fastest ways to reach between Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne!Check out their Instagram: GermanyTourismAr, and Facebook: Germany Tourism Arabia– For more about Dubai’s lifestyle, news and fashion scene straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook Media: Supplied...https://emirateswoman.com/germany/
In Berlin and Erfurt, two murals belong to the people - People's World
Sunday, January 26, 2020The other mural symbolizes basically the same ideals but in a very different way. Erfurt, 200 miles to the south, the capital of Thuringia, is an ancient city, first mentioned in 742 AD. It has a handsome “old town”, with 25 churches and a grand cathedral crowning a unique, wonderful stairway. But post-war GDR needed millions of modern homes and it needed them quickly. Using its newly-developed system of prefabricated panels, it built whole neighborhoods of comfortable, extremely low-priced apartments, well connected by cheap city transportation, provided with new schools, child care and sport facilities, clinics and cultural centers, soon improved with trees, shrubbery, playgrounds, but with one weakness – their sameness.
A number of sculptors and painters worked to overcome this; a leading light among them was Josep Renau (1907-1982).
Born in Valencia, where he studied at the art academy, Renau became an active leftist, joined the Communist Party and, when the fascist putsch began in 1936, he joined in making the famous posters supporting the Republic. Put in charge of the Spanish Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, he was able to encourage and then exhibit Pablo Picasso’s passionate, startling “Guernica” mural.
After the defeat of the republic Renau escaped to Mexico, where he worked with the great Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Invited to the GDR in 1958, he soon began work on his remarkable murals, almost as colorful as those of Moia but with bold, modern, partially abstracted forms which did not always conform to some administrators’ clichéd ideas of the officially-approved “socialist realism”. In spite of such attitudes, he became most noticeably successful with a series of murals, some vertical, some horizontal, always big and eye-catching, for a new city, Halle-Neustadt. It is still a goal of art-lovers’ pilgrimages.
Old Erfurt also wanted such a bright attraction for its new high-rise housing areas, and commissioned a mural by Renau for a big new cultural center. Called “The Relationship of Humans to Nature and Technology,” it shows two large hands, one with an apple, the other a many-sided geometric object, surrounded by symbols and urging a symbiosis of both elements in building a better world. It was composed of 70,000 colored glass mosaic tiles, each about one inch square, and together full 7 meters tall and 30 meters in length ((23 ft. x 98 ft.) – truly an impressive sight! Sadly, Renau did not live to see its completion.
Monimbó mosaic in Berlin, Gabriele Senft
Many GDR works were discarded or destroyed after 1990, but the Erfurt mosaic (and the Halle-Neustadt murals) survived. But in 2012 the cultural center – like nearly all of its kind – received a death sentence. It was replaced by a shopping center, which saved the city costs and brought money into the pockets of persuasive new owners. As for the Renau work, due for demolition, it was again a small group of devotees who managed to rescue it – but only after it was sawed into many sections, put away in a storage building, and almost forgotten.
But those who loved it did not forget it. It took them years...https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/in-berlin-and-erfurt-two-murals-belong-to-the-people/
Discovering Thuringia, Home to Germany’s Enchanting Christmas Markets - Vogue
Tuesday, August 20, 2019First-time travelers to Germany may flock to the livelier hubs that are Berlin, Frankfurt, or Munich—but hidden from the crowds in the middle of the country is Thuringia, one of Germany’s smaller states. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in a high number of historical landmarks and figures: it is where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born, where poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller lived and developed their craft, and where the Bauhaus art and design movement was first ignited. It is also home to over 400 different castles and palaces, all of which are anchored by the scenic Thuringian Forest that holds a variety of different hiking trails.Visit Thuringia in December, though, and it really comes alive: it happens to hold some of the best Christmas markets in the world. (We’re talking next-level, capital-F festive, seriously postcard-worthy Christmas markets.) Every holiday season, communities across the state set up enchanting booths filled with plenty of local crafts, food, and wine. They are usually erected in the cities’ main marktplatz, though some of them spread their markets out across town, or even host t...https://www.vogue.com/article/touring-germanys-christmas-markets